8 things you must know to run a successful Facebook personality test

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Make sure Facebook personality test is the right fit to help you reach your goals

It’s a quiz with a reward- a personality profile created specially for you! Are you a corvette, or a corvair? Which Dallas Cowboy do you most closely resemble? Do you dunk, or dip? I remember the day I discovered Drew Barrymore was my celebrity soul mate. I only had to answer 5 simple questions for that life-changing discovery! Whether you’re selling detergent or sexy sports cars, people love running a Facebook personality test, especially now that they can compare their profiles with their friends!

This type of campaign is advantageous for collecting emails, though not spectacular (this can be boosted by offering prizes), offering an in-depth brand experience, capitalizing on person-to-person marketing, nurturing your brand ambassadors and finding new ones. It will also throw some fuel on your brand awareness machine, regardless of your industry.

Think your brand’s not sexy enough? These profiles belong to a successful personality test run by a bank!

Is a personality test a good fit for your audience? Yes. It works well with all kinds of audiences- B2C, B2B, groceries, luxury products, car parts, sports fans and enthusiasts, lawyers, bankers, high tech, low tech… And, it’s also one of the few apps that can create a draw with or without prizes. Personality tests are just fun. Your fans will actively promote your campaign and your brand to show off their profiles to their friends! Basically, you can run a personality test for any brand, targeting any kind of audience, and do so without giving anything away if you choose. You’re not taking any risks running a quiz on your Facebook page!

However, the level of engagement required (time) may reduce the number of email addresses and qualified information you would normally collect from a simpler campaign (sweepstakes or instant win).

A personality test will require more time and attention from you as well. You’ll need to draft images and well thought out copy to build your campaign. So, if you are looking for a “low maintenance” type of app, this isn’t what you’re looking for.

The bottom line:

Sophisticated and fun user experience to make your brand more memorable: yes J

Quick and easy fan growth and optin email collection: no L

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Make sure you have the time and or the resources to be creative

Of all the Facebook apps available on the market, a personality test will be the ultimate trial of your creative ability. First, you’ll need to define all of your personality profiles. Then, you’ll need to write creative questions and draft a potential answer for each question that corresponds with each personality profile. Finally, you’ll need to create more visuals than any other type of app since each question will require a unique illustration.

If you already have a good idea which questions you want to ask and can easily find royalty free images on the web to compliment them, you’ll be set in no time. But, if you don’t have the time or resources to write the necessary copy and/or create or curate all the visuals, a personality test will be tough to put together.

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You have the time and resources? Then be creative!

Just because it’s named a personality test doesn’t mean you must limit yourself to creating personality profiles. A personality test can be an extension of your customer service efforts. Why not help users discover which product or service fits their needs prior to making the purchase. You may have the power to determine: which type of car best suits a driver, which foreign country a home chef’s cooking style more closely represents, which bottle of wine would best accompany your cooking and leisure habits. Assistance in choosing the right golf clubs, phone contracts, insurance plans, furniture sets and more will make life a bit simpler for those who want to love you.

A fragrance brand helps potential customers select the right product for them

Or, you could provide meaningful insight as to which celebrity your fans ought to be stalking… Ohhhhhh, Drew! 😀

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Offer prizes! Or not!

Unlike most Facebook apps, the personality test doesn’t require prizes to draw a big crowd. Offering a prize or two may boost the conversion, however, as well as increase the number of participants. So, if your goal is to get a high conversion in terms of new fans or email entries, offering a prize will be necessary.

Prizes can be awarded for participation in a personality test in a myriad of different ways, the simplest- a random draw. Just export your participants, use your own random method, and say thank you with a gift. Or, for more fun, conduct a random draw amongst those who land in a certain profile (most common, least common, jury’s favorite) The best model may be a mix of these two- a random draw amongst all participants, along with a grand prize random draw for a participant who is of the selected profile. You can even choose amongst the most pure of a certain profile. Some users will only qualify 3 out of 5 for a profile, whereas others will qualify 5 out of 5. Some app providers, like Agorapulse, will provide you with the ability to see this in your campaign export.

A WWE Personality Test with result

One of the differences between a personality test with prizes and one without, is the inevitable attraction to bounty hunters. If you’re offering prizes, whatever you do, they will come. But, you won’t attract as many scammers with this campaign as you would with others, because it’s harder to know how to win. Scammers will create numerous fake profiles to enter a sweepstakes, or cheat a quiz. The rules you create and display throughout your campaign will determine who wins, and who may be disqualified. Most cheaters will be more drawn to simpler campaigns that are easier to scam, but some will inevitably come, so make sure your app allows you to see each participant’s IP address, and ban them with one click if necessary.

A personality test without prizes will ensure high quality fans for your page that won’t drag down your edgerank score, but there will be fewer. If you do decide to offer prizes…

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If you offer prizes, choose them carefully

Avoid offering attractive prizes that have nothing to do with your brand. A free holiday will not attract fans of your beauty products. Everyone wants to win an iPad. But, how many online gadget hunters are potential customers for your hand made jewelry, motorcycle accessories or exotic coffees? An appropriate award will deflect prize hunters, who will hide your posts or unlike your page as soon as your campaign is over. Eventually, this kind of activity will drag your EdgeRank score down, thus fewer of your true fans will see your content.

The prizes you offer should interest participants who are already your customers, or will be in the future. If your contest prize attracts contestants who have no reason to become your customer, change it!

If you are an airline, why not offer more miles to fans who are already members of your loyalty program, or an upgrade on their next flight? If you’re offering trips to resorts, send your winner to one of the destinations in your portfolio. If your business specializes in selling iPads, why not give away a must have accessory? Or, an iPad? 😉

Choosing the right prize is your main guard against attracting opportunists and cheaters. You may have fewer entrants, but in the long run, you’ll be far better off with 100 new potential customers, than 1,000 scavengers.

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Triple check your calls to action

Visitors can’t guess what you want them to do, you have to tell them. If you want them to like your page to enter, tell them so, if they need to click to enter, show them where, if filling a form is required to enter, let them know that, and use visuals as much as possible. Most people don’t read text or instructions on the web.

If you want your fans to like your page to enter, it is better to direct their attention to the like button they will need to click. In this example, the call to action may not be simple enough to be idiot proof…

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Don’t forget mobile users!

There are 1.1 billion active users on Facebook, and 750 million active users on mobile. That’s almost 70%!

If you think mobile users will only check their friend’s stories and never use your Facebook app, think again. Based on our internal data, 40% of fans who are offered the chance to enter your competition from their mobile device do so!

Would you close the door to 40% of your fans and prospects?

A Facebook campaign ran by one of our clients. Almost 33% of the 26,000 participants were on a mobile device when they entered.

Make sure the app vendor you choose offers mobile access to your contest, the standard link to your campaign tab will not work. Zuck Dawg hasn’t built Facebook tabs for mobile yet, and possibly never will (you’d have to have really super small thumbs to click on the right one anyway ;). App vendors, like Agorapulse, will provide you with a specific link, which detects the type of device your participants are using and optimize the format for their screen.

As a general rule, we do not recommend investing in Facebook ads to recruit new fans. Even though they offer pretty good targeting options, your Facebook ads may generate new fans who are more interested in your prizes than your brand, product or services.

You can get rid of unwanted traffic to your website without leaving a damaging trace. But you can’t get rid of fans, they are here to stay, unless they decide to leave. So if a bulk of your page’s fans aren’t genuine, they will probably hide your posts and never engage with you, bringing your edgerank score down, and your ability to reach those who truly love you down with it. (link how to make sure to get genuine fans only)

As a top-notch marketer, your goal is not to recruit more fans, but to recruit the right ones- those highly valuable fans you can build a productive relationship with. The best way to do that is to leverage the communication channels you already own, like your email list, your website traffic or your point of sale.

The best leverage you have to bring the right new fans into your social fold is your current customer base. These excited customers who are already trafficking your website, reading your emails or visiting your stores are probably waiting to tell the world about you! Make sure your Facebook app provider offers you an embed feature to reach them were they are. Your website traffic can like your page, submit their photos, vote, and give you their email address and other valuable information without ever having to leave your site.

Agorapulse offers an option that allows you to embed your Facebook contest right within your blog or website. A convenient way to leverage your existing web traffic and boost participation in your Facebook Instant Win.

Make sure the app can be accessible through mobile, as more and more users are now checking their emails from their mobile devices. If you’re a brick and mortar retailer, make sure you have a QR code (or short URLs) signage at the point of sale to convert these “real” visitors into fans.

This is the rollup we use on our booth when we sponsor events. Visitors are prompted to scan the QR code to install our Facebook app. This tactic converts a significant number of booth visitors into leads. You could use the same tactic to invite people to participate to Instant Win directly in your store.

Sometimes, investing a little in Facebook ads to increase the number of qualified fans can be a legitimate expense, but we recommend leveraging your own communication channels over paid ones first. With Agorapulse’s mobile optimization and website embed options you can easily get new fans directly from your point of sale, your website, blog traffic or email list without spending a dime!

Richard is a Client Happiness Jedi for Agorapulse, based out of San Francisco and Paris, advising agencies and brands across the globe on Facebook page management and marketing. He sings Bachata in the shower and dances salsa 3x a week whether he needs it or not.

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